Search Results for: european union

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced reforms to its state aid rules for large-scale projects, which particularly affect the European Union’s synthetic fibre sector. From January 1, 2003, the industry will be subject to transitional rules maintaining the strict approach of the current sector specific rules; in particular, projects will not be eligible for investment aid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GENERAL sale to the public of special paints, printing inks, varnishes and adhesives containing 43 dangerous chemicals is to be banned from April 2003, if a proposal from the European Commission is accepted by the EU Council of Ministers.…

BY MARK ROWE
THAI-JAPANESE joint venturers have floated a plan to turn a hillside in northern Thailand into one of the world’s most unlikely ski venues. Leisure Patine International Co Ltd, which has previously developed ice rinks in Thai shopping centres, has suggested that Japanese snow-making machines could be used to establish a ski slope near the town of Chiang Mai, a place better known as a haven for European and Australian backpackers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE INTRODUCTION of the Euro as a retail currency in 12 EU countries at the beginning of the year has done virtually nothing to level out the wide variations in new car prices between them, the European Commission said today (Monday).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL organisation is to be set up later this year to help developing country governments negotiate better deals for drug access, as well as helping local researchers to protect their ideas from being poached. The MIHR, (Management of Intellectual property in Health Research and development), will be set up by public health and intellectual property experts from Britain and the Netherlands, with the assistance of experts from Asia, Africa, south America and north America.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank is to help finance the construction of two new fast and technologically advanced “cruise ferries” for the Italian shipping company Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) for use on routes between Genoa and Sardinia/Sicily.

The EIB, the financing institution of the European Union, is making a Euro 99 million (Pounds 60 million) loan in conjunction with a syndicate of Italian banks.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVE reform of the European Union’s VAT package for travel agents has been proposed by the European Commission, which would change the special rules that apply for the sector. Because their services are often consumed in a foreign Member States where different sales tax rates can apply, travel agents are allowed to pay VAT on the profits that they make rather than handing over the VAT charged directly on services that they supply, minus the VAT they paid when incurring allowable business expenses.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union ministers have approved two new directives that toughen EU-wide rules insisting that insurance companies have deep enough financial reserves to meet their policy commitments in the most unexpected of circumstances.

These solvency margin directives, (one for life insurance and the other for non-life), increase the minimum amounts of capital that must be held by these companies, (the so-called minimum guarantee fund).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have approved a new ‘solvency margin’ directive that boosts by 50 per cent the minimum financial reserves that must be retained by EU-registered insurance companies writing aviation industry policies, which Brussels deems “a particularly volatile risk.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment of Euro 50 million in grants over six years to help the South African government strengthen its primary health care, in particular in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The first Euro 25 million for the 2002-2004 will be allocated to the South Africa’s Department of Health, the remainder will be paid in 2004, subject to positive external review.…